Erik Larson beschwört in seinem neuen Buch meisterhaft die aufregende Atmosphäre des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts herauf und verknüpft die wahren Schicksale zweier historischer Gestalten, des genialen Erfinders Guglielmo Marconi und des Mörders Hawley Harvey Crippen, zu einer Geschichte, die sich so fesselnd liest wie ein Roman. »Marconis magische Maschine« stand nach dem Erscheinen in Amerika viele Wochen auf der Bestsellerliste der »New York Times«.

The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult” (Los Angeles Times).“Perhaps no other historian has ever rendered the struggle for Sumter in such authoritative detail as Larson does here.”—The Washington Post“Even history buffs will find much that is new here.”—The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionOn November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding ...

1914: As America’s century of dominance dawns, the country’s greatest detective, Van Dorn agent Isaac Bell, is pitted against a master thief and his assassin accomplice. They’re plotting to pull off the greatest heist in America’s history: the theft of a billion dollars from the newly created Federal Reserve.When an aerial attack is launched against Woodrow Wilson’s yacht during a meeting among the Federal Reserve’s branch leaders, Bell thwarts it, only to find that the strike was just the opening of an even deadlier gambit. It’s up to Bell to find the link between the attack, the mysterious death of a Newport heiress, and growing evidence of an unimaginably audacious heist.Dou...